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Not quite sure what Arizona gets out of this at all. I guess there is an argument to be had that any bullpen arm is worth having and Pods was pretty good for the Sox. But geez, Arizona looks pretty solid in the bullpen and Gerardo Parra is an awfully good 4th outfielder so it's not like they are desperate for Podsednik.

Nice for the Sox though. Agreed with #1 that the Sox get the best player in the deal and the Sox open up a 40 man roster spot in the process which is a bit of an issue.

What a year for Red Sox fans. Even when the team seems to win a trade by all possible criteria, it's in the process of acquiring someone who made a name for himself in the 2009/2010/2011 Oakland bullpen. Reminding the fans of the great acquisition of Andrew Bailey is sure to renew their faith in the management team.

Sorry guys, my fault. Phoenix has been running a bit dry lately, KT got a little cranky with my inability to score anything other than ditch weed, so I might have put it in his ear that Pods travels with some of the most tasty, so you should really view this trade as Breslow for Pods+Albers+some of the stickiest, ickiest around, which you can see makes it a straight up steal for KT, and me.

Of course Pods will be on waivers as soon as he runs out, but hey, that's how the big leagues work, bud!

Nice for the Sox though. Agreed with #1 that the Sox get the best player in the deal and the Sox open up a 40 man roster spot in the process which is a bit of an issue.

I was going to make that latter point; Bailey is due to come off the 60-day DL, so they were going to need that roster spot eventually anyway.

Breslow is signed for 2012; assuming no money changes hands, Boston's share of his contract is $600k. If I have this right he's arb-eligible for 2013. Albers has roughly $350k left on his 2012 deal, and is arb-eligible for 2013. Podsednik might have $250k left if he's on the major-league roster. So, basically, Arizona sacrificed a little surplus talent in the bullpen for OF depth in 2012 and (likely) cost savings in 2013. Like with Boston, this was a margin play for Arizona.

Given that each team was dealing from surplus, I guess you could say the trade boils down to Arizona selling roster space to Boston for cash. Even there, it's a win-win.

What a year for Red Sox fans. Even when the team seems to win a trade by all possible criteria, it's in the process of acquiring someone who made a name for himself in the 2009/2010/2011 Oakland bullpen. Reminding the fans of the great acquisition of Andrew Bailey is sure to renew their faith in the management team.

Not to mention the fact that Breslow only went to the A's because the Red Sox DFAed him to keep Bryan ####### Corey on the roster.

I'm just glad the Sox dealt Albers for something before it was too late. He's a replacement level reliever, who had a nice run during part of last year and another nice run during part of this year. Getting an actual good reliever for him is fantastic.

I was surprised at how effective Albers with the Red Sox. I remember being generally unimpressed with him as an Oriole and couldn't figure out why the Red Sox signed him last season. (Part of it was the fact that he's kind of a fat guy who appears to have no muscle tone). I agree with Darren though, I was always afraid when they brought him in this would be the day he was going to come back to earth.

I was surprised by Albers' perofrmance as well, but:
* I've considered him a better pitcher than his numbers showed for years now,
* anything can happen over 40 innings, and
* he's dramatically outperformed (by ERA) his peripherals (for example, ERA=2.29, FIP=5.02)

Scottie Pods has been released by Arizona. So what was the point of that? Has MLB adoped NBA salary cap rules when I wasn't paying attention?

I think the D'Backs wanted him for minor league depth, but knew he might want to go somewhere with a better chance to reach the Majors. They had a couple of days to convince him to stay in the organization, but weren't able to.